CROSS COUNTRY: Mercer County makes history at NJSIAA meets

It was all about making history for Mercer County at yesterday’s NJSIAA Group meets.

In the Group IV meet, West Windsor-Plainsboro South won the first boys’ championship in school history with 64 points at Holmdel Park. Westfield was a distant second with 119 points. That advances the Pirates to Wednesday’s Meet of Champions for the fifth time in six years (the top three teams plus wild cards advance).

The Pirate girls finished fourth with 141 points but earned a wild card berth to reach the MOC for the first time in eight years.

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In the Group III meet, Nottingham freshman “Amazing” Grace Dwyer continued to set new standards for her school. Dwyer became the first Northstar to ever reach the MOC by finishing third with a time of 18:54. West Morris Mendham’s Mackenzie Barry (18:26) and Tenafly’s Josette Norris (18:44) finished ahead of her.

Dwyer’s time is the fifth fastest ever run at Holmdel for a Mercer County girl.

Also advancing individually was Hightstown’s Luke Dermody, who finished third in Group III in 16:27.

Although it was not official immediately after the race, it appeared as if West Winsdor-Plainsboro North’s Eddie Cunningham (11th, 16:28) and Princeton’s Luke Bozich (14th, 16:43) could advance as individuals via the wild card.

WWPS boys were again led by the Riff twins, as Jake Riff and Dan Riff finished 4-5 in 16:11. Tom Vinci finished seventh in 16:17.

“People ask me if I’m surprised we won,” coach Kurt Wayton said. “I was surprised in other years when we didn’t win. We should have won in 08 and 09 but it was a series of calamities. We were kind of snake bit.

“But everything was there today. It was just a matter of us running a solid race. We didn’t run off the charts, we ran a solid race and won by 60 points. I told them all I was asking for was a solid race.”

Rounding out the champs’ top five were Karn Setya (24th, 16:48) and Tobias Schoefield (32nd, 16:54).

The Pirate girls continued to progress from a team that Wayton and coach Josh Siegel didn’t think would win a meet back in August.

“They don’t make cross country movies but if they did they’d make it about these girls,” Wayton said. “We didn’t have a great race, we were solid but weren’t great, but these girls haven’t been bad all year.”

Stealing the show individually for Mercer’s girls was Dwyer. The Mercer County and Central Jersey Group III champ led after the first mile before getting passed for one of the rare times this year. She still finished strong and reached her goal of a top-three finish and sub-19:00 run.

“I think I did really good,” the friendly freshman said. “And I hope I can do good on Wednesday. I’d like to finish in the top five or 10.”

“She finished strong all the way to the line,” coach Melissa “Shop ‘N Bag” Foley said. “She did amazing for a freshman. Everyone keeps asking me ‘Is she disappointed she didn’t win?’ Whether she’s disappointed or not she’s definitely proud.

“Competitive people get disappointed all the time. It doesn’t mean they’re not happy with their performance. She’s just hungrier for next time.”